Polly stood in the loud sea of first years, the air thick with anxiety and excitement. It was all too much to take in. This time last year, she thought she would follow in her parents footsteps and become a solicitor. Now, she was a witch, standing on the marble steps with a crowd of kids her age, most of whom were bouncing with excitement, seemingly unfazed by all the magnificence around them. She liked to imagine what it was like to grow up with magic in the home, but her parents had given her plenty to be thankful for.
As time ticked on, Polly's breaths became ragged and uneven. She couldn't stop the quake in her shoulders or the twitch above her eyebrow. Polly wasn't in control of her own body at the moment. Anxiety consumed her. In a few moments, the doors to the great hall would be open and Polly would be sorted into her house, and then would begin the biggest adventure in her young life. Then she would begin to study magic.
"Easy with the breathing, or there will be no air left for the rest of us," a voice chuckled into Polly's ear, making her jump. Polly turned and saw two identical red headed boys. They were snickering, but they seemed to be joking in fun.
The doors opened quickly after, not giving her much of a chance to reply. The whole group of first years were way more keen on their first peek into the Great Hall.
For a moment, the anxiety subsided as she looked up at the floating candles, the beauty of them mesmerizing, until Polly got a look at the students, sitting at four long tables. There were so many of them. Where would she sit? Where would she be sorted?
Just thinking of all those people looking at her made her weak in the knees. When the crowd started shuffling into the hall, Polly began to get pushed and shoved. She tried her hardest to stay in step with the people around her but it only resulted in her stumbling around even more. Finally, they were at the front of the hall for everyone to see. Polly felt a little uneasy, but better knowing that she was in the middle of the crowd and not on the outside. At least she was tucked away from sight.
A few students were called and placed into their houses. The crowd around Polly was thinning and her pulse increased with every name that was called. It was getting closer to her turn alphabetically. Polly knew that she had to do this to stay at Hogwarts obviously, so there was no way out of without embarrassing herself. Just once... she would only have to do this once. It was a moment she would cherish forever, if she could just get over the original embarrassment of it all.
You'll be fine, she thought, just breath.
"This will help with your nerves. It's a sweet. Trust me," the same red headed boy from before said. Or maybe it was the other one talking this time.
"I don't think I should," Polly whispered to him.
"Nonsense. You're nervous and this will help," the boy said. He held the sweet out towards her. It seemed harmless, just a little treat to give her something to focus on.
Polly took the sweet and ate it, tasting the wildflower honey flavour. The boys kept snickering but she just smiled, thinking nothing of it.
"Polly Samuel!" McGonagall shouted, reading off the parchment in her hands.
Polly shuffled her way through the much smaller crowd with elbows up to get to the sorting hat. She climbed the steps quickly and sat on the stool allowing whoever was behind her to place the hat on her head.
"Hm, a rather quiet one, eh? Your mind isn't very complex yet is it? Easy to read, easy to sort. Hufflepuff!" the hat shouted and one of the long tables began to clap and cheer. She smiled happily, even though the hat kind of called her simple.
Polly almost ran off with the hat still on but the professor grabbed it, having been through this a hundred times. She went to the table she was assigned to and took a seat next to a blond haired boy. She didn't ask his name. With his attention still on the front he patted her on the back. He turned to smile at her, his face changing from happiness to confusion.
"What's wrong with your nose?" the boy asked, poking it with a boney finger. "It's turning purple."
"What?" Polly asked, grabbing an empty goblet. She looked into the reflection and saw that her nose had in fact turned purple. "How?"
"Fred Weasley!" Professor McGonagall called. One of the red haired boys from before walked over to the hat. He saw Polly and smirked, winking at her. He did this to her. And he was happy about it.
Polly hung her head in embarrassment, but luckily a prefect sat nearby and helped her out, chanting out a small counter spell that made it go away. She checked her reflection again, and watched as the purple turned pale, and soon was gone. Relief washed over her, but her anger didn't quite get the memo. She was mad that someone would try to make her time here harder. When she looked at the rest of table, a few girls were looking at Polly, but laughed and turned away when she saw. Seemed like enough people had seen the purple.
She tried to ignore her anger for the rest of the meal, and instead focus on the great speeches and delightful feast. She was fairly quiet, listening way more than talking, feeling a little shy and a little invisible.
Then after, the first years were directed to follow their prefects to their dormitories. It was a long, confusing walk to her new home. She surely wouldn't remember it right thought this whole castle might have been bigger than the town she came from. But so worth the walk. It was beautiful, cozy, filled floor to roof with vines and plants, cracks of sun coming through circled windows. Hufflepuff felt right. This was right.
When she was in her own room, she smiled at the sight of her house clothing, positioned neatly on her bed. Polly watched a few others girls wander in, then saw her trunk sitting at the edge of one of the beds already. Polly walked over, sitting on the edge it, noticing the yellow drapery framing her bed, while she ran her fingers along the soft fabric of her comforter. It was perfect.
"I saw you at the feast," one of the girls said, "what was with the purple nose?"
"Someone gave me a sweet that did that," Polly answered, blushing at her own naivety.
"Didn't your parents ever tell you not to take candy from strangers?" she laughed, tossing her hair over her shoulder.
"Oh, leave it be," another girl said, "why shouldn't she trust someone here?"
"Whatever," the girl said, "you're still weird."
"Ignore her," the nicer one said finally, "I'm Tanya. That's Laura."
"Let's go to the common room," Laura said, laughing happily like she hadn't just been insulting Polly. "Let's go meet the rest of the house!"
Laura didn't wait for the others, just left with another girl from the room. Tanya looked at Polly expectantly, but she looked anywhere but at Tanya. "Maybe I'll just stay in."
"C'mon," Tanya said, leaning on the bedpost closest to Polly. "Don't let a little prank and Laura get you down."
"You talk like you know her."
"I do," Tanya said, "our families go way back. She's fine once you get to know her, I guess." She shook her head. "C'mon, let's go meet everyone."
Polly was pulled by the wrist into the bustle of the common room. Tanya left her side after a few comforting words to go meet some of her fellow Hufflepuffs. Polly, however, stayed put near the staircase to her dorm. It was her quick getaway plan. Polly observed some of the people at the party. The first girl she saw was the mean girl from earlier. She was laughing with a couple of older girls. When she saw Polly looking at her she laughed and pointed. Polly looked away quickly. Polly saw a group of boys excitedly chatting; they were clearly friends recently reunited.
Polly saw a couple of people just like her, standing off to the side with no idea about how to approach strangers. Polly thought for a moment about maybe going to talk to one. But instead, she turned around and went right back to her room.
The next few weeks were some of the best of Polly's life. She already loved learning, but she loved learning about these subjects even more. She didn't have this growing up. She went to muggle school for a few years before her powers were even discovered. Polly would guarantee to anyone at Hogwarts that this was the more favourable school. The people, the teacher, and the lessons were all way more interesting.
When Polly was nine years old weird things began to happen around her. Small, inexplicable things. Like things moving without anyone touching them, or things disappearing. Polly felt like a freak. She knew she was the one doing these things but her parents were clueless. They didn't know their little girl was suffering so much.
A few years later the most amazing thing happened. She got her Hogwarts letter. Her parents were so proud. Their only little dove was a witch! They took her to Diagon Alley and got her everything she would need and much, much more. In other words, they spoiled her. They were told by a representative of the Ministry of Magic that they weren't to tell a soul. So, even though they wanted to brag to their friends and larger family, they were forced to lie, saying she was at a private school in America. Polly missed her family very much, but she was happy here. She just wished she didn't still feel so alienated. There were other muggle borns, but she just felt so behind.
Currently, she was learning about the charm Wingardium Leviosa, or how to make things levitate with magic. Polly was doing just fine, making the little feather flutter around the room. Laura, the mean girl from Polly's dorm room, let out a huff. She was unable to make hers move even the slightest. A few others were able to get the pronunciation and movement right but Polly was the quickest and most effective earning her house five points. It made her smile, thinking that maybe she wouldn't be the biggest loser of her class.
A girl named Angelina Johnson got the Gryffindors five points as well. Maybe now people would stop teasing Polly behind her back - although she believed that Laura would see to it that didn't happen under any circumstance. For some reason, Laura hated Polly. Polly and Laura had many things in common appearance wise. They had similar length brown hair, and their eyes were so close in colour only a keen eye could see that Polly's green eyes were a tad more bright that Laura's. They were even the same skin tone. Although the over-all look was different. Polly had a small innocent face with big eyes Laura had a really pronounced look. Her cheekbones could being mistaken for surgically enhanced. Polly knew Laura was going to be gorgeous when she was a little older.
Polly's best friend Tanya was the dramatic opposite of both Laura and Polly. She was black, with shiny black hair that fell to her shoulders and eyes that were brown, but had undertones of gold, making them more hazel than anything. Tanya much prettier, and much, much, nicer.
On a Tuesday afternoon Polly had finished all her homework and Tanya was with some of her other friends, so Polly was walking aimlessly around the castle trying to get herself familiar with places in the castle that she didn't go regularly.
While checking out some of the paintings she heard a chorus of cackles from a little ways down the hallway. Two familiar red headed boys were walking towards Polly. Well, they were headed past her. She was mad at them. She was mad at them more than she had ever been mad at anybody. They're the main reason Laura treated Polly so badly. They embarrassed her in front of Jacob, the blond boy from the feast, and he told all of his friends about the purple nosed freak. When they noticed her, she narrowed her eyes to a glare.
"Why're you glaring at us?" one of them asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, George, she's the one I gave the sweet to," the other answered. "She must be right bitter about it still."
"Leave me alone," Polly said, beginning to walk off. The caught up and walked on either side of her.
"C'mon now, it was just for a laugh," the one on the left said.
"I don't think she found it funny, Fred," the one on the right said.
"Is that what you think, George?" Fred asked.
"It is," George said.
"Well then maybe we should apologize," Fred said.
"If it'll stop the soul crushing glare, we better," George said.
At the exact time time they both said, "Sorry," and their little apologetic smiles made Polly want to believe them.
"We didn't think it would upset you that badly," Fred said.
"We hadn't realized how shy you were," George said.
"People call me a freak now," Polly said, crossing her arms. "Which seems ridiculous for where we are."
"They'll get over it," Fred said, "I promise."
"You know what, we'll make sure of it."
And they stayed true to their promise, because the next day at breakfast, the two of them burst loudly into the room, both sporting bright coloured noses. George's blue, Fred's green, and causing a bit of a scene. Everyone was laughing, chuckling at the weird brothers of Percy Weasley. Tanya and Polly giggled together as their brother forced the counter charm on them. George caught Polly's eye, and winked, and she winked back, forgiving them.
